Customer Reviews

McGraw-Hill's LSAT with CD-ROM, 2010 Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've gotten to about pg 115 in this book and already it's starting to get me angry. I've noticed blatant mistakes it's made such as in pg 115, for the answer to question 2, they state it is A and that the answer is three. However when you go into the question section, the answer choice for 3 is B. That's just an example of the silly and unprofessional mistakes I have been noticing in this book.

The explanations for why you may get certain answers wrong are also very poor. It's usually very cursory and you have to do a lot of figuring out yourself to understand why you got something wrong (a good thing and bad thing I suppose).

I wholly do not recommend this book as I think these mistakes invariably forced me to evaluate this book as poorly done.

Please don't buy this book if you're studying for the LSATs. I picked it because it was relatively inexpensive and included several practice tests. The logic section had some useful tips for mapping out problems; however, that's where I end my positive comments about this book. The section on Logical Reasoning (50% of the actual LSAT) offered very brief explanations on how to answer different types of questions. But then I found the explanations to the "drill" answers (practice problems) quite confusing and often succinct as "this point is irrelevant". I think shouted "but why?!!?" at the several times while going through this section - it felt the author was just too lazy to offer a full explanation for the reasoning involved.

Additionally, the book claims practice tests are "carefully model(led) on the actual LSAT." I think the authors must have a very loose defination of "carefully" which I didn't quite realize when I plunged into the diagnostic test. I did horrible and thought it was me until I found the answers and explanations consistently lacking in sound reasoning. For example, in one question (15 of the logical reasoning in the first practice test), the question asks for an answer that is "assumed by the argument" of the stimulus. The answer that the book says is correct is an inference of the argument, not an assumption. One of many, many flaws.

I'm going to request a refund of my money. Instead of this book, I recommend the books from PowerScore which are much more comprehensive and include *real* LSAT questions and the 10 Real LSAT books just to get some more practice in. Please, please don't buy this book.

I've seen my share of LSAT prep test books. This is by far the worst LSAT prep book I've come across.

I've seen a good majority of actual LSAT prep tests, and decided to buy this book to go through some more practice tests.

McGraw-Hill seems to have their own musings as to what actual LSAT questions are.

Many of the questions are full of questionable answers and blatantly flawed use of logic (one that sticks out in my mind: the stimulus states If someone is happy, then that person has sung; the "right" answer claims if that person has sung, that person will be happy. Seriously...), while the structure and wording of the question stems, stimuli, and answer choices are very different than actual LSAT questions. Again, the questions simply are not accurate representations of actual LSAT questions. I didn't even bother to look at their strategies after taking the practice test. Yes, I'm assuming the quality of their questions reflect their strategies. But I sure as hell won't be giving them the benefit of the doubt.

...seriously. Just don't buy this book.

I wish I had read the reviews of this book before using it. I almost became disappointed in the LSAT as a whole, until I realized from these reviews that the standards of this book are poor, not the actual LSAT. One common mistake is that they ask for "assumptions" or "inferences" and pose the correct answer as something already stated in the passage. I am looking forward to moving on to more accurate material to prepare me for the test.

It is a great product because you get what you pay for and it comes with a practice CD so overall pretty straight forward package I loved that it didn't skip and that the test are pretty straight forward.

I purchased the kindle edition and I am quitting at 16% done. I have found at least a dozen errors up to this point, and a lot of the examples are not even there, apparently as a result of them not checking to make sure that everything came over while transitioning the book to kindle edition. If you want this book, buy it in print, DO NOT get the kindle version.

I have just finished this book and taken an actual practice LSAT. I can say that while it may have some benefit if you are comparing it to sitting on your ass and taking the LSAT, that is about the extent of it. I wish I would have spent my $25 on a Powerscore Bible; I have heard good things about their books. The McGraw Hill is full of bad answer explanations (i.e. "This Point is irrelevant" or "This answer is probably not the case"). While their explanation may be true it definitely does not help to "explain". The Logic games are ok but are too constrained in the rigid scenarios they use. (i.e. "If ABCDEF all eat at a diner on different nights, according to..."). Basically since they do not use real LSAT data and their tips and lessons dont really help, I would not recommend this book. I am glad that I signed up for a class and not taking the test tomorrow.

P.s. Who cares about the CD its not the same as taking a hard copy of the test and you cannot print it out.

The above reviewers said it all. I got the book in addition to PowerScore for supplemental review and was rather disappointed by the quality of the content.

I bought this book because it offered the most full practice tests for your money (8 full tests for $40 at Barnes & Noble), but I totally regret it. After having taken a number of practice tests from the Princeton Review, whose tests come straight from actual LSATs, it's clear to me that this book 1) contains logic problems that are FAR easier than actual LSAT logic problems, and 2) contains major logical errors like those described above. And like the other posters, I was so disheartened by the quality of the book that I also read the section where they say their tests are "carefully modelled" on actual LSATs; I recommend that others studying for the LSAT avoid this book and rely on materials crafted around actual LSAT questions.

Of the LSAT prep materials I looked at before buying, this one had the most specific, step-by-step instructions on how to study for the test.

For me the most helpful part has been in how they break solving the logic problems down into specific, small, logical steps that when strung together in many cases make the answer obvious.